andrewa Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 A few months ago I found listings from China for two Royal Navy WW2 Submarine completed models, HMS Ultor and HMS Safari, the models are die-cast, with quite crude plastic details. I've seen a couple of others repainted, and they looked like they could form the basis for a decent replica with a bit of work, here's the first one a U-class submarine. The U-class were designed just before WW2 and were built in large numbers. Famously they operated out of Malta throughout the height of the Mediterranean battles and are equally famous for their successes and high loss rate. I decided to complete this one as a generic member of the class rather than a specific boat. Having stripped the model back down to a basic hull the changes made to get a bit more accurate were: Filled hull cut-out reshaped and extended bow for a more accurate profile reshaped keel reshaped dive planes and rudder to a finer profile built up casing which appeared too shallow added bitts and capstan Filled tower cut-out reshaped tower foreplane - guard wires rudder guard wire replaced prop shafts and a-frames MF/DF aerial gun deck rails rebuilt gun detailed tower replaced periscope standards 291W radar etched brass guard rails around the radar Jumpwires The finished build was painted in the Mediiterannean blue colour used in the Med campaign before then using laser printed decals for all the various freehold holes and footsteps in the casing and tower. Weathering was a mixture of oils, humbrol and Mig washes. It's not 100% accurate, and scales out at slightly under 1/350 but it's the only game in town and is fairly well matched to the Group 2 U-class profiles in The Encyclopaedia of British Submarines. It's also pretty small this is a 10p coin: Andrew 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jockster Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 You don't hang about Andrew. Both of these subs are well impressive. Reworking two diecasts as you have shows what can be done in modelmaking with a bit of vision. Nice one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 All that re-working has paid off. Much better and quicker than anything by B**cock by a mile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPBR Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Another great model Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Cracking job Andrew, very nicely done cant wait to see some more. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now